This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,650,974 discloses a viscous clutch having a housing, a rotor or clutch disk that is rotatably disposed in the housing assembly, and a wiper that is configured to scrape or wipe a viscous fluid off an outer circumferential surface of the rotor and direct the scraped/wiped fluid to a scavenge passage formed in the housing assembly. The wiper is movably (e.g., pivotably) mounted to the housing assembly and rests on the outside circumferential surface of the rotor. This configuration was a quantum leap in viscous clutch technology because it obtained a relatively high degree of sealing between the wiper, the circumferential surface of the rotor and the housing assembly while subjecting the wiper to relatively modest amounts of wear through the life of the viscous clutch.
While the above-described viscous clutch is well suited for its intended use, it would be desirable to further improve the wear-resistance of the viscous clutch so as to increase the useful life of the viscous clutch.